


Catfish

by Eggling



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (1963)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 18:07:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13723155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Eggling/pseuds/Eggling
Summary: Jamie thinks he's found a piece of Scotland on an alien planet. The Doctor disagrees.





	Catfish

“Shh.” The Doctor touched Jamie’s arm gently, holding him in place. As if he’d dare move, with the Doctor all tense like this, Jamie thought. When the Doctor was this worried, something was usually terribly wrong. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” The sound of a twig snapping made Jamie jump and clutch at the Doctor’s arm until he realised he had stepped on it himself. “I don’t hear anything.”

“There was something, a moment ago -” The Doctor remained tensed for a moment, listening, but eventually sighed and relaxed. “It was probably wistful thinking.”

Jamie bumped his shoulder against the Doctor’s. “We’ll find her,” he said comfortingly. “She has tae be out there somewhere.”

“Unless she’s drowned,” the Doctor said miserably. “Or got into some other sort of trouble. Oh, Jamie, why didn’t I watch her more closely? I promised her father I’d look after her, and now we’ve gone and lost her! She’s only been with us a few weeks.”

“She’s probably just wandered off,” Jamie said, as much for his own benefit as the Doctor's. “Ye know what Victoria’s like. Once she’s got an idea in her head, off she goes.” He considered it for a moment. “You’re the same, ye know.”

The Doctor huffed. “ _I_ know what I’m doing. Victoria’s lost in a bog on an alien planet, and there’s no sign of her anywhere.”

Before Jamie could suggest that they double back, the air was split by a loud, familiar scream. “Jamie! Doctor!”

“Victoria!” The sound of her voice brought all Jamie’s buried panic back to the surface. He made as if to run in the direction her voice had come from, but the Doctor grabbed his shirt, holding him in place. “Didn’t ye hear her, Doctor? We have tae find her!”

“What if it’s a trap?” the Doctor said.

“Why would it be a trap?” Bemused, Jamie glanced around at their surroundings. It seemed like a perfectly safe place to him – frogs croaking, birds squawking, reeds whispering. A surprisingly loud splashing noise, not too far away. He might even have gone so far as to call it pleasant, if they had not lost Victoria. “I think you’re taking this a wee bit too far, Doctor.”

“Because Victoria sounded close,” the Doctor whispered back. “Why hasn’t she called out before?”

“Maybe she didn’t think to.”

“Do you really believe Victoria wouldn’t think to scream for us?”

Jamie shrugged. “Point taken. But we still dinnae know that there’s anything tae worry about, Doctor.”

The Doctor wagged his finger at him. “You’ve been lulled into a false sense of security.”

“Hey, just ‘cause it looks like my home -”

“Shh!” The Doctor clapped his hand over Jamie’s mouth. Jamie struggled against him until he realised what the Doctor had heard – the splashing noise, drawing closer alarmingly quickly. “What’s that?”

“Something big,” Jamie murmured. “A beastie?”

“Possibly.” The Doctor scanned the waters around them.

“I know. A kelpie.”

The Doctor laughed – nervously, not unkindly, but dismissively enough that Jamie felt a flicker of annoyance. “Kelpies aren’t real, Jamie, you know that. I think it’s more likely that it’s just an exceptionally large catfish.”

“Ye don’t _know_ they’re not real. It could’ve dragged Victoria off into the water tae eat her.”

“Now, _really_ , Jamie -” Victoria’s screams cut through the air again, and the Doctor flinched. “Victoria!”

“Doctor!” Victoria shouted back. “I’m -” She was cut off by a great splash.

“Victoria?” There was no reply, and the Doctor hurried forwards, looking around desperately. “Victoria, what happened?”

“Er… Doctor?” Jamie pointed to the pool in front of him. Something large and dark was rushing towards them chaotically, sending water spraying in all directions. They leapt back, but it turned away at the last moment, crashing into a rock. Jamie caught a brief glimpse of hoof and slimy, pondweed-like tail before it thrashed around and raced away, little more than a fleet shadow beneath the waves it had created. “Did ye see that?” He turned towards the Doctor, only to find that he was gone.

He found him crouched amongst the reeds near where the creature had hit the rock, helping a sodden, shivering Victoria out of the water. “It’s alright now,” he was saying gently. “We’ve got you. Let’s get you back to the TARDIS, hm?” She nodded, rubbing her arms and pushing weeds and rotting leaves off her dress.

“Doctor!” Jamie skidded up beside them, splashing mud everywhere. “Doctor, I saw a horse!”

“Oh, Jamie, now’s really not the time for -”

“No, no, the thing in the water! It’s a horse!”

“Don’t be silly, Jamie. Horses can’t swim like that.”

“He’s right,” Victoria put in, her voice trembling. “It’s a horse.”

“It was moving much too fast, and underwater – what did you say?” The Doctor turned to frown at Victoria. “Are you sure you’re not in shock, my dear?”

Victoria shook her head. “It was definitely a horse,” she said.

“What did it look like?” Jamie asked eagerly. He could not help but feel a little smug at the prospect of proving the Doctor wrong. “Was it black?”

“Yes, a sort of bluish-black colour,” Victoria said. “And its mane and tail were all slimy like -”

“Like pondweed!” Jamie finished, grinning triumphantly. “There, what did I tell ye, Doctor? It’s a kelpie.”

“Kelpies are a myth, Jamie,” the Doctor said gently. “Perhaps it’s an alien creature with some passing physical resemblance, but I doubt -”

Jamie ignored him, crouching down next to Victoria. This was familiar, he thought. This was something he knew more about than the Doctor did. “Where did ye first see it?”

“Just next to the water,” Victoria said. “I paused for a moment – I don’t remember why. It came out of the water towards me, and I had this funny sense that I had to go to it.”

“Did it have a saddle on?” Jamie asked. “Did it look at ye like it was going to eat ye?”

“Yes, it – it certainly wanted me for something. I stroked its nose for a moment, then felt as if I had to get on its back.” Victoria started to cry, and Jamie sat back, feeling a little guilty. “I know it was silly, I don’t know why I did it! It took off into the water, and I was stuck there. I managed to steer it into the rock, and I came off.”

“Shh,” the Doctor soothed her. “It’s quite alright now. It let you go.” He pulled her to her feet. “I think we ought to be getting back to the TARDIS, Jamie. She’s had quite a fright.”

“Ye go on ahead,” Jamie said. “I’m no’ leaving until I’ve seen the kelpie myself.”

The Doctor sighed. “Jamie, after what happened to Victoria, I’m not going to just _leave_ you here -”

“I’m no’ going!”

“I don’t think you’ll have to wait long,” Victoria interrupted, her eyes fixed on the water.

The kelpie rose slowly out of the pond, staring them down. Its eyes were deep blue, and Jamie found them oddly captivating, as if they were pulling him towards the creature. Only when the Doctor laid his hand on his arm did he realise he had been walking towards it.

“Careful, Jamie,” he said, his voice low. “Back away slowly, hm?”

“No.” Jamie halted, but did not return to his side, instead holding his hand out. “Do ye have some rope in your pockets?”

“Rope?” Automatically, the Doctor felt in his pockets, pulling out a length and handing it to Jamie. “Yes, of course – no, Jamie, don’t!”

“It’s alright.” Jamie stepped a little closer to the kelpie. “I know about kelpies.”

“This isn’t a kelpie!”

Jamie’s gaze had caught on something – a gash on the kelpie’s fetlock, blood running down into its thick, matted feathers. Somehow, he understood that its approach was a plea for help. “It’s alright, I think,” he said softly. “It’s alright. I think it can understand us.” Taking care to make no sudden moves, he knotted his rope into a rough halter. “Shh, we’re no’ going tae hurt ye.”

The kelpie flattened its ears at him, tossing its head and stamping its hooves, and he paused, holding the halter out. “Jamie!” the Doctor squeaked. “Jamie, do be careful.”

“Ye want this, don’t ye?” Jamie said softly. Not a quite kelpie, then, he thought, but something very like it. Something close enough. It stepped back again, but whickered softly at him, clearly torn. “Aye, ye do. Here.” He held the halter open, offering it.

“Jamie, don’t!” The kelpie flinched away at the Doctor’s exclamation, and Jamie turned to scowl at him.

“Dinnae mind the Doctor,” he said. “He just doesn’t understand yet, that’s all.” At last, the kelpie snorted and stretched its neck out to sniff the halter. “There, that’s a good beastie.” It thrust its muzzle into the noseband, and he pushed the headpiece over its ears, smoothing out its forelock and grimacing at the slime on his hands. “There.”

“What are you doing?” The Doctor’s expression had turned from fear to curiosity.

“It’s no’ trying tae eat us.” Jamie pointed to the cut. “It’s just hurt, see? It didnae want to hurt Victoria, just get her tae fix it.”

“But it made me climb on its back!” Victoria argued, peering anxiously over the Doctors’ shoulder.

“I, ah, think it’s learning,” the Doctor said, stepping forwards to examine the cut. “It’s spent most of its life being ridden, so it thinks that’s how humans communicate. You stroked it, so it’s changed its mind. What a fascinating creature.” He held his hand out to the kelpie, but it shied away. “Why do you think it’s taken to you two rather than me?”

“It’s lost,” Victoria said, surprising Jamie. “It just wants to go home, poor thing.” Emboldened by pity, she approached the kelpie, smiling sadly and holding out her hand. “I want the same thing, and Jamie -”

“It reminds me of Scotland,” Jamie said, realising.

“Whereas I have nowhere to miss,” the Doctor murmured. “It’s very mildly telepathic. Fascinating.” He walked a circle around the kelpie, looking it over. “It’s been dumped,” he informed them, pointing to the back of the saddle. “Someone’s pulled a nameplate off. Perhaps we’d better take it back to the town, see if anyone will take it in.”

“Take it in?” Jamie’s face fell. “Ye mean we’re handing it over to someone else?”

“We can’t keep it, Jamie.” Jamie pouted at him. “It’s not as if it’s a real kelpie, now, is it? It’s probably native to this planet, and pining for home as it is.”

“Aye, you’re right. It deserves tae go home.” Jamie bumped his head against the kelpie’s cheek. “Doctor?”

“Mm?”

“He might no' really be a kelpie, but I _was_ right, ye know. He’s no’ just a big catfish.”

“Oh, hush.”


End file.
